The Commander’s brow furrowed. “The river runs north to south. A boat won’t take us in the direction of the Capital Lands.”
“I don’t want to go to the Capital Lands,” the Empress said. She let her hand drop. To Akella’s surprise, the Empress turned and addressed her next words to her. “I brought you all this way to take my army to the Kingdom of Persopos. Defeating the man – or monster – that resides there is the only way this war ever ends.”
“You don’t have an army anymore.” Akella waved a hand towards the city. “Unless you have a way to animate corpses. You trusted sorcerers, and they murdered your army.”
“We need to go,” the Commander said. “We need to leave now, while the mountain men are occupied with taking the city and still believe you dead. We need to put as much distance between us and Pellon as we can while we have sun.”
The Empress squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. “I love you, Joslyn, but Mother Moon you have to stop telling me what I can and cannot do in order to protect my Empire and my people. For the last time, I am not going back to Port Lorsin until the threat from the Kingdom of Persopos has been eliminated.”
The Commander’s nostrils flared. “There’s nothing you can – ”
“Two men,” the Empress broke in. “The actions of just two men led to the death of my father and nearly plunged the Empire into civil war. Just my grandfather and Norix. And if someone had stopped those two men – ”
“This is not the same situation, Tasia!”
“If someone had stopped those two men, thousands of lives might have been saved. Two men.” The Empress glanced between Akella and the Commander. Akella could tell she wasn’t done; she was just getting started. “One man – one thing, rather – keeps this war going. A single creature that will not stop until it has consumed the entire Empire of Dorsa. The council may well take my crown, along with my head, once I return to Port Lorsin. But right now? Right now I am here, standing in the East, and I am still the Empress of the House of Dorsa. And I will not – I will not – run back to the palace and hide while a monster threatens to swallow my Empire and all the lives within it.” She stared right into Akella’s eyes. “And you? You said you would take me to Persopos, not for the Empire, but because you left your crew there. What say you, Captain Akella? Do you plan to tuck your tail between your legs once more and run back to the comparative safety of Port Lorsin? Will you leave them in thrall to the monster, or are you going to help me, like you said you would?”
Akella looked away. She had to look away, because there was nothing hollow and flat in those green eyes anymore. They were emerald flames now, and they would burn her to cinders if she looked into them a moment longer. But even though she couldn’t look at the Empress, Akella also didn’t shift her gaze to the Emperor’s Road.
She shifted her gaze to the boat.
The Commander glanced between them, sensing a conspiracy growing. Clearly exasperated, she bit out, “The river is frozen solid.”
“The river is frozen here. Today,” Akella said. She pulled up a mental picture of the map of the East she’d seen in the Empress’s bedchamber. “But yesterday, the snow was melting. And today is warmer than yesterday. Tomorrow will be warmer again. If we follow the river south, we should find it melted in two, perhaps three days’ time.”
“And what will you have us do?” the Commander demanded. “Carry a half-rotten fishing boat south while we try to outrun the mountain men?”
“No,” Akella answered. “If we can trust the Empress’s map, the river between here and Fontan is a patchwork of villages. There will be more boats like this one to be found. A day or two’s journey south, and we’ll have a flowing river again, along with a boat. We’ll take the river south until we reach the border of House Fontan’s lands, then turn east and head for Reit.”
The Empress nodded her agreement and turned to the Commander. She didn’t say anything to the concubine, just stared at her.
The Commander’s shoulders dropped, just slightly, and even before she opened her mouth, Akella knew the Empress had already won the argument.
Stubborn as a desert stone,Akella thought again, the hint of a smirk twitching at the corners of her mouth.
“The Imperial Army cut a path from Birsid to Pellon, but House Fontan, including Reit, that’s all still territory held by tribesmen,” the Commander said, even though she had to know she’d already lost.
“I suspect every tribesman who can carry a spear is inside Pellon right now,” the Empress said, and her voice sounded cool and relaxed now. Regal again, as if she hadn’t been practically comatose for the past twenty-four hours. She shrugged casually. “But you’re right, we’ll need to be careful. The three of us are all smart women, though. It shouldn’t be too hard. And I know from my own experience that people rarely find what they don’t know to look for.”